Regarding the various Nuri forms...

I just reread the Osaka arc, and I had a couple of thoughts. First (this is a brief one), right before Katou goes to attack the acid-backed monster that initially defeated the Sadists (Chapter 251, page 2, Gantz 251 page 02 | One Manga ), Anzu yells, "Let me tell you about how to clear!".

How to clear? To "clear", as the Osakans say, is to get 100 points. Evidently, there is some sort of trick or strategy the Osakan team uses...thoughts?

More importantly, though, I decided to analyze the Nuri forms, and I saw what may be a pattern:

Nuri starts out in his old man form.

He then transforms into a child, then a nude woman. Kyou then shoots him.

He transforms into his tall, laser-eyed form. Kyou shoots him again.

Nuri is left as just a head, then the head sprouts arms, then puts itself back together into a form that resembles the laser-eyed version, except minus the lasers. George and Kuwabara slice him apart.

The pieces of Nuri transform into four variations on the initial "old man Nuri" form, which then combine to make one "old man Nuri". It dodges George and Kuwabara's attacks, then George grabs it.

At this point, Nuri transforms into a giant mass of nude women. He envelops George and continues to increase in size. George tries to cut his way out but is unsuccessful. Nuri forms himself into a giant woman made up of hundreds of individual, nude women. He then spits out George's head.

Kuwabara attempts to flee but is enveloped by Nuri. He ejaculates in Nuri's mouth and falls to the ground. Katou then fights Nuri. When he uses the Y-gun, Nuri abandons the composite "giant woman" form and turns back into a mass of nude women. Katou is enveloped.

Nishi then hits the "mass of women Nuri" with the H-gun, leaving only the arm and Katou. Anzu gets Katou out of the arm and they jump away just as Nishi annhilates the arm with the H-gun, leaving only a pool of blood.

From the pool emerges "Behemoth Nuri", the one that has a skull for a face, antlers, and all that stuff. He goes on a rampage and is decapitated by Oka. He then transforms into a mass of demonic-looking flesh, looking rather like a composite of Osakan Yokai. Oka palm blasts him.

From one of the pieces of Nuri-flesh emerges a taller, more muscular version of the "old man Nuri" form. Nuri palm-blasts him again, and when the dust settles this Nuri is sitting on top of some discarded Nuri-flesh. He and Oka fight, and he eventually shapeshifts to resemble Oka (though still in the "old man Nuri"-esque form). Then the milkshake incident occurs and Nuri is slashed up.

From the remains of that Nuri form arises the sphere of marble thingies that fly out and attack the Gantzers.

After the marble incident, Nuri is now somewhere in between the "child" form he initially transformed into and the nude woman form that Kyou shot. Oka's slash is still visible. Kaze beats the shit out of him and punches his head apart.

Upon losing his head, Nuri transforms into multiple male forms, similar to his "feminine hell" form. The Tokyo team blasts him apart.

Nuri then reforms in his most recent form, the demonic, skull-faced creature. He is then blown apart yet again.

Now, what's the pattern? Keep in mind, this is rather rough, but here's what I'm seeing:

Nuri starts out each "stage" in an "old man Nuri" form or variation thereof (the initial form, the form that destroyed Oka's supersuit). He then turns into a child/nude woman form (the initial transformation, the form that Kaze beat the shit out of), then an "odd" form specialized to take out his opponents (the laser-eyed form, which was meant to seek out his hidden attackers, and then the marble form, which allowed him to strike all of his opponents at once), then a "multiple bodies" form (the feminine hell form, the form that Katou and the Tokyo team fought). After that, he turns into a "demonic" form-the Behemoth and the form the killed Oka.

Then the cycle starts again.

In other words, we are at the conclusion of the second "cycle" of Nuri forms. The first cycle concluded when Oka killed the Behemoth, the second concluded when the demonic form was blown up.

What's next? Another cycle? God, I hope not.

^ Good job, man.

We'll confirm if this theory of cicles depending on the form Nuri'll take next chapter (277). If it's an old man form yet again, we'll know what to expect for the next ten or so chapters. And if he dies, oh, boy! That'll almost be a crazy plot twist.

I had a theory each different form would have certain properties in common, like the light-skinned forms would be softer and would divide and regerate easier, while the behemoth and skeletor form would be more solid (for instance, if the behemoth or skeletorm were shot by the h-gun, they wouldn't dissolve as the multple women form), but that went down the hole when Oka managed to slive Nuri that time, since it deemed off the idea of particular weakness and presented the wekaness to surprise attack theory, which is acceptable to a degree.

Nice but somehow knowing that doesn't help the Gantzers to kill him. Being predictable doesn't not make him invincible (eek! double negative =[ )

There's another point that adds up to the cycles theory, now that I think about it; both demonic forms came to be only after the whole body was apparently destroyed, so only blood or small pieces were left. Finding patterns is nice once in a while.
Not that really helps with anything, as SD pointed out ¬¬

I made that thought about Nuri resembling the buddhist way of reincarnation before, but with cooler pointing out those cycle of age and form differences (you can say that his demon forms may stay for animal forms), Nuri seems to stay for the cycle of life and death itself.
I don't remember reading that the original Nurarihyon had those powers.
My theory is that Nuri has to run out of life energy/power (there has to be something that keeps him alive) to be defeated. Wouldn't make sense if he's undefeatable (in Gantz).

Quote:

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From one of the pieces of Nuri-flesh emerges a taller, more muscular version of the "old man Nuri" form.

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In fact that form was his initial form. He wasn't that smaller as the form he took in the chap 264. he looks small here Gantz 256 - Read Gantz chapter 256 online at One Manga because his companions were above the 2 meters.

Quote:

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don't remember reading that the original Nurarihyon had those powers.

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That is because he is not precisely the real "Nurarihyon" of the japanese folklore. The Omake of the Vol 23 states that "it seems like" these aliens are copying the real Yokai appearance.

The Nurari is going in cycles but we don't really know why it goes in that cycle. also, in certain cycles it can copy what it sees or wants to copy like when he was fighting Oka and made himself look more similar to his modified Gantz suit or when Nishi shot him with the H-Gun, it started manipulating gravity (this is what i believe for how it made the invisible blasts because when he was fighting Oka in the beginning, the bridge and water exploded downward and the water around the circle went upwards). Why it only sometimes mimics things is what confuses me and somewhat ruins the pattern because the inital form mimiced as did the behemoth form so he does that whenever. Also...wouldn't it eventually run out of its self from shapeshifting into more and more things while not really regaining its self sometimes?

Interesting thread, but you also should imply the different forms of attack Nuri uses in his different forms. When are his attacks the weakest? And can he use all of his attack forms with all his transforms?

^
God forbid he can use all his attacks in any form. Can you imagine if he used his eyebeam attack 24/7? Everyone would be dead.

@ Gunmetal: Interesting you thought of that; I'm also in favour of the "Nuri copies attacks" theory, however I hadn't thought of his invisible attack as a copy to the h-gun shot, rather I thought it was a response to Kyou's early x-rifles attacks. As a matter of fact, one of the reasons I thought the theory was off, even though I liked it, was Nuri apparently not having copied the h-gun attack.

As for each form and its attacks, let's see:
Nuri 1st form: old man -> none seen
Nuri 2nd form: child/woman -> it appeared to melt the 1pointers on touch
Nuri 3rd form: tall guy/head -> a large range crazy eyes laser + able to float
Nuri 4th form: (goes back to being old guy) -> none seen
Nuri 5th form: women multitude -> envolving the enemies with its body
Nuri 6th form: behemoth -> physical/tentacle attack + main invisible attack
Nuri 7th form: youkai mass -> none seem (didn't really get to do his thing with Oka palm-blasting him)
Nuri 8th form: old guy (but taller if compared to form 4) -> melee physical attacks + a maybe "impossible to comprehend" attack (Oka-copy form is also included here) + "area clear" attack of marbles
Nuri 9th form: bizarre woman/mutltitude -> melee physical attacks + possibly enemy envelopment attack
Nuri 10th form: "skeletor" -> super fast melee attack (?) + being able to fly (?)